Mahomet eBook

“Mahomet has commanded me to go to Nakhla and
there await the Kureisch; also he has commanded me
to say unto you whoever desireth martyrdom for Islam
let him follow me, and whoever will not suffer it,
let him turn back. As for me, I am resolved to
carry out the commands of God’s Prophet”

Then one and all the eight companions assured him
they would not forsake him until the quest was achieved.
At dawn they resumed their march and arrived at length
at Nakhla, where they encountered the Kureisch caravan
laden with spice and leather. Now, it was the
last day of the month of Rajab, wherein it was unlawful
to fight, wherefore the Muslim took counsel, saying:

“If we fight not this day, they will elude us
and escape.”

But the Prophet’s implied command was strong
enough to induce initiative and hardihood in the small
attacking party. They bore down upon the Kureisch,
showering arrows in their path, so that one man was
killed and several wounded. The rest forsook
their merchandise and fled, leaving behind them two
prisoners, whose retreat had been cut off. Abdallah
was left in possession of the field, and joyfully
he returned to Medina, bearing with him the first
plunder captured by the Muslim.

But his return led Mahomet into a quandary from which
there seemed no escape. Politically, he was bound
to approve Abdallah’s deed; religiously, he
could neither laud it nor share the fruits of it.
For days the spoils remained undivided, but Abdallah
was not punished or even reprimanded. Meanwhile,
the Jews and the Kureisch vied with one another in
execrating Mahomet, and even his own people murmured
against him. It was clearly time that an authoritative
sanction should be given to the deed, and accordingly
in the sura, “The Cow,” we have the revelation
from Allah proclaiming the greater culpability of
the Infidels and of those who would stir up civil
strife:

“They will ask thee concerning war in the Sacred
Month. Say: To war therein is bad, but to
turn aside from the cause of God, and to have no faith
in Him, and in the Sacred Temple, and to drive out
its people, is worse in the sight of God; civil strife
is worse than bloodshed.”

No possible doubt must be cast in this and similar
cases upon Mahomet’s sincerity. The Kuran
was the vehicle of the Lord; he had used it to proclaim
his unity and power and his warnings to the unrighteous.
Now that Islam had recognised his august and indissoluble
majesty, and had accorded the throne of Heaven and
the governance of earth to him indivisibly, the world
was split up into Believers and Unbelievers. The
Kuran, therefore, must of necessity cease to be merely
the proclamation of divine unity that it had been
and become the vehicle for definite orders and regulations,
the outcome of those theocratic ideas upon which Mahomet’s
creed was founded. The justification would not
appeal to the people unless Allah’s sanction
supported it, and Mahomet realised with all his ardour
of faith that the transgression was slight compared
with the result achieved towards the progress of Islam.
The Prophet therefore received, with Allah’s
approval, a fifth of the spoil, but the captives he
released after receiving ransom.